Join us to discuss our summer reading selection, The Personal History of Rachel DuPree by Ann Weisgarber. Weisgarber’s debut novel tells the story of Rachel DuPree, who is hired in a Chicago boardinghouse and falls in love with Issac, the boardinghouse owner’s son. Issac offers to marry her as long as she gives him her 160 acres from the Homestead Act so he can double his share. Upon his offer, Rachel agrees and together they stake their claim in the forebodingly beautiful South Dakota Badlands. Fourteen years later, pregnant and struggling to feed her family, she is trying to give her surviving children the life they deserve. Knowing her husband won’t leave the ranch she finds the strength to do what is right for herself and her children.

Ann Weisgarber was born and raised in Kettering, Ohio. She has a master’s degree in sociology and has worked as a social worker and taught high school and college. Ann has lived in Boston and Des Moines and now is back and forth between Sugar Land and Galveston, Texas. The Personal History of Rachel DuPree is Ann Weisgarber’s first novel. It was longlisted for the Orange Prize, was a finalist for the Orange Award for New Writers, and won the Texas Institute of Letters’ Steven Turner Award for Best Work of First Fiction.

Call or stop by the Women’s Center to reserve your spot and one of the books available for those committed to the Summer Reading discussion. For more information about the Women’s Center Summer Reading, contact Cindy at 775-4524 or via email at cindy.vanzant@wright.edu.